Ukraine says three of its soldiers have been killed in the country’s east -- the heaviest toll reported in the region in nearly two months.

Military spokesman Andriy Lysenko said on April 20 that the soldiers died in a mortar attack on the government-held village of Mayorsk, located some 35 kilometers north of Donetsk.

He said five soldiers were also wounded over the previous 24 hours in separate incidents along the 500-kilometer front splitting the separatist-held regions of Luhansk and Donetsk from the rest of the country.

The news comes amid rising concerns about cease-fire violations in eastern Ukraine, where fighting between government forces and Russia-backed separatists has killed more than 9,100 since April 2014.